Pittsburgh zoo’s beloved 17-year-old giraffe Sox dies
By Madeline Bartos
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Sox, a beloved 17-year-old Masai giraffe at the Pittsburgh Zoo, has died.
The zoo announced on Sunday that Sox had been humanely euthanized on Friday.
The zoo says she’d been undergoing treatment for chronic degeneration of the bones in her leg since last summer, and she quickly worsened last week. The zoo said its highly qualified veterinary team worked with outside experts and determined there were no remaining options to improve her quality of life.
The zoo says Sox was one of the zoo’s most popular residents, along with her fellow giraffe Lewis.
“Lewis may be the crowd pleaser, but Sox was one of the keepers’ favorites,” said lead keeper Lisa Caruso in a press release. “She was smart and curious and loved to train and learn new things, lie in the sun, and eat bananas. Sox especially loved her friend Spencer the zebra, with whom she shared her exhibit.”
Sox was born at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo on Oct. 25, 2007 in the middle of the Red Sox’s sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. That’s how she got her name — that and her white ankles. She came to Pittsburgh Zoo in 2013.
On Facebook, the zoo invited guests to share their memories of Sox, and the post has nearly 200 comments.
The Masai giraffe is the largest giraffe species, the zoo says. Because of poaching and habitat fragmentation, they’re considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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